Kadek, leading a jewellery workshop where each piece is made by hand

Kadek Budiana, our workshop's manager, was born in Singapadu, just five minutes from Celuk. His father and his brothers were toucans, silver- and goldsmiths. He remembers wanting to play with tools to make rings and necklaces as a child. They would not let him because they were afraid he would get hurt, so he made replicas with wood and sticks he had at hand.

Kadek was raised by his uncles. His mother, who already had 7 children, entrusted him to her sister and her sister’s husband who lived across the street and had no children. Kadek spent his childhood at his aunt's house until he became a teenager. When he was ten years old, the first of his aunt's children was born. She had another child later on, and always thought that the gods blessed her with children because of the effort and love she and her husband gave to Kadek.

At the age of 12, Kadek went to live with his cousins who had an art shop, because he wanted to learn English and specialise in making and selling jewellery. During those years, he also trained in Pencak Silat, the Indonesian martial art, and came to represent his region in tournaments.

When he finished high school, Kadek began working full time at his cousins' art business. Four years later, he had his own jewellery workshop in Singapadu with more than 30 people. It was partly the fruit of a relationship with an American man who placed large orders for jewellery. He remembers it as a time of enormous responsibility and also that it went down, like large parts of the island's economy, with the 2002 terrorist attack.

For the next two years, Kadek survived as best as he could and with the return of the Australians, Europeans and North Americans, he got a job as a freelance tour guide. For 13 years between 2004 and 2017, he toured beaches, temples, rice fields and volcanoes with groups of tourists from around the world. It was a job that he liked and that allowed him to improve his English, but he remembered that in his family they always said: "Whatever you do, never abandon the tradition of making jewellery."

The opportunity to return to the family business came to him in 2017 and in the area that interested him the most: combining the work of a toucan with jewellery design. He has been eThnoPur’s production manager for 4 years now and affirms that he learns something every day: analysing how to accomplish designs, preparing orders and achieving the highest possible efficiency in a workshop in which every ring, bracelet and necklace is made by hand.

Kadek married in 2007 and has two children.